The Innocent Days of War

“[A] dreamy, elegiac novel…Fortunato’s real strength is in alternating between focusing in closely on the emotional struggles and longings of his many characters and zooming out to consider the progress of the war in Europe and Africa as a whole.” —Booklist

“These characters all encounter each other in wholly unexpected ways—and ones that have little to do with the political allegiances they’re meant to be upholding. In this, Fortunato highlights how arbitrarily these grand forces intersect with the lived realities of actual people, masterfully capturing the chaos of wartime.” —Asymptote Journal

Praise for Mario Fortunato:

“As I read Fortunato’s writing, I have the impression of being faced with that kind of writer, rare in Italian literature, who, despite starting from a poetic state of mind, nevertheless manages to be a storyteller.” —Alberto Moravia

“Mario Fortunato is a natural storyteller.” —Doris Lessing